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Ranching and the new global range: Amazônia in the 21st century |
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| Authors: | Robert Walker John Browder Cynthia Simmons Marcellus Caldas Sergio de Zen |
| Institution: | a Michigan State University, Department of Geography, 116 Geography Building, East Lansing, MI 48824-1117, United States b VPI, Urban Affairs and Planning, 201 Architecture Annex (0113), Blacksburg, VA 24061, United States c Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Environmental Studies, Geneva, NY 14456, United States d Kansas State University, Department of Geography, 118 Seaton Hall Manhattan, KS 66506-2904, United States e Universidade de São Paulo, Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ), Departamento de Economia Administração e Sociologia. Av. Pádua Dias, 11 Agronomia 13418900, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil |
| Abstract: | This paper seeks to understand how the Brazilian Amazon, which many thought unsuitable for agricultural development, has yielded to a dynamic cattle economy in only a few decades. It does so by embedding the Thunian model of location rents within the regime of capital accumulation that has driven the Brazilian economy since the mid-20th century. The paper addresses policies that have created location rents in Amazônia, the effect of these rents on land managers, and the spatial implications of their behavior on forests. Thus, the paper connects macro-processes and structures to agents on the ground, in providing a political ecological explanation relevant to land change science. The policy discussion focuses on reductions in transportation costs, improvements in animal health, and monetary and trade reforms. To illustrate the impact of policy, the paper presents data on the geography of Amazonian herd expansion, on the growth of Amazonian exports, and on the profitability of the region’s cattle economy. It follows the empirical presentation with more abstract consideration of the spatial relations between cattle ranching and soy farming, and implications for deforestation. The paper concludes on a speculative note by considering the likelihood of forest transition in the region, given the transformation of Amazônia into a global resource frontier. |
| Keywords: | Land change science Forest transition Political ecology Amazon Deforestation Cattle |
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